Alien: Covenant Has Michael Fassbender Playing Multiple Androids

Aliens came out 30 years ago and by many accounts, that is the last time we had a truly great movie in the Alien franchise. That very well may change next year with Alien: Covenant. The movie is still nearly a year away, but lately we have been learning some new and exciting details, including the fact that Michael Fassbender will be playing two different androids.

It was announced quite some time ago that Michael Fassbender will be reprising his role from Prometheus, but now we know he will also be playing a new android called Walter. The actor revealed the information in an interview with The Irish Times, which was uncovered by an Alien: Covenant fan site. Here is what he had to say about it.

"I am allowed to say I am playing two robots - Walter and David. I think what's great about it is that Ridley has gone back to the original DNA of Alien, the horror element of that. But is also has the scope and the scale of Prometheus. Ridley has cut it already. He is a machine. He is an incredible human being and he was in such good form. He is such an imaginative and mischievous figure."

Even if a lot of people didn't love Prometheus, there is no doubt Michael Fassbender was one of the best things in it. So it is cool that Ridley Scott will be exploiting his talents even more so in Alien: Covenant. It is also really worth noting that Fassbender claims that the movie is already edited. Does that mean we will be seeing a teaser of some kind soon? It could. Either way that means the movie is probably in pretty good shape if it is in the can this far out from its release date. Unless Fox or Ridley Scott decide they want to do reshoots at some point. In any case, this is all pretty cool and probably good news for Alien fans.

There aren't many specific plot details for Alien: Covenant, but given some recent news, it seems like this will be a more direct prequel to Alien, as opposed to what happened in Prometheus. Ridley Scott also reportedly has at least one and possibly two more movies planned in the series leading up to the events of the original Alien movie. Michael Fassbender has said that this movie will be much scarier and based on some of the recent set photos and information we have, that isn't hard to believe. Recently, Fassbender revealed that the new aliens will be called Neomorphs, and the fan site AVPGalaxy dug up some more info on them.

"The Neomorph resembles some of the older concept art of the proto-Aliens from Prometheus, specifically the white coloration, with a pointed head and two dorsal spines. Upon birth, the Neomorphs move on all fours similar to the Bambi-burster from Alien 3. When they mature, they grow significantly larger and walk on their back legs. They were more animal-like in behavior with fang-like teeth. Unlike the earlier Prometheus concepts, the Neomorphs also have tails. In addition, the adult Neomorphs also developed a slightly translucent appearance (harkening back to unused concepts from Alien and Prometheus as previously rumored."

Most of the crew didn't make it out of Prometheus alive, so there won't be a lot of returning characters for this next entry. As mentioned, Michael Fassbender will return as David (and also Walter, apparently) and Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth. The new cast members include Demian Bichir, Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride and Billy Crudup. The potentially unfortunate part of Ridley Scott's plans for some fans is that it has put Neill Blomkamp's Aliens sequel on hold, at least for now. Alien: Covenant is set for release on August 4, 2017.